Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1887-12-22
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
a. Homily on ssToo Much Ado About
Small Things"
Heaven Lost Sight Of in Worrying Over
the Trifes Of Earth--Tho Tendency
to Excuse Big Sins and Mag.
nifty Little Ones.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage took for the
subject of a recent sermon in the Brooklyn
Tabernacle: "Too Much Ado About
Small Things, F" preaching from the fol-
lowing text:
Ye blind guides. which strain at gnat, and
swallow camel-Matthew xiii, "a.
The preacher said: A proverb il COM
pact wisdom. knowledgs in chunks. q
library in a sentence, the electricity Of
many clouds discharged at one bolt, q
river put through q mill-race. When
Christ quotes the proverb OF text he
means to set forth the ludicrous behavior
Of those who make great bluster about
small sins and have no appreciation about
great ones.
In my text a small insect and a large
quadruped are brought into comparison
q gnat and a camel. You have in museums
or on the desert seen the latter, great.
awkward, sprawling creature. with back
two stories high, and stomach having a
collection Of reservoirs for desert travel,
an animal forbidden to the Jews
Us food, and in many literatures
entitled sthe ship of the desert"
The gnat spoken OF in the tex
il in the grub form. 1t is born in pool
o. pond. after a few weeks becoming a
chrysalis, and then, after a few days, be-
comes the gnat as we recognize it. But
the insect spoken of in the text is in it's
very smallest shape, and it yet inhabits
thu water-for my text is a misprint, and
ought to read, ''strain out a gnat."
Ny text shows you ths prince Of incon-
sfstences. A man after long observation
has formed the suspicion that in a cup of
water he is about to drink there is grub
or the grandparent of a gnat. He goes
and gets a seive and strainer. He takes
the water and pours it through the sieve
in the broad light. He says: 81 would
rather do any thing almost than drink
| this water until this larva be ext;rpated."
! This water is brought under inquisition.
The experiment is successful. The
water rushes through tn, sieve and
leaves against the side of the sieve
the grub or gnat. Then the man care
fully removes the insect and drinks the
water in placidity. But, on going out one
day, and hungry, he devours ''ship of
the DESERT" the camel which the Jews
were forbidden to eat. the astronomer
has no compunc tions of conscience. He
puts the lower jaw under the cancels fore
foot and the upper jaw ovor the hump of
the camel's back and gives one swallow,
and the dromedary disappears forever.
Vie strained at gnat and swallowed a
camel.
VIII lSt Christ's andenc, were yet smi'-
ing at the appositeness and wit of his il
lustration-for smile they did in church,
unless thew were too stupid to understand
the Observation-Disclosures practically said to
them: "That is you" Punctillious about
small things; reckless about affairs of great
magnitude. No subject ever writhed I'M
der surgeons knife more bitterly than
did the Pharisees under Christ's scalpel Of
truth. As an anatomist will take human
body to pieces and put them under a
microscope for examination, so Christ
finds his way to the heart of the dead
Pharisee and cuts it out and puts it under
the glass of inspection for all generations
to examine. Those Pharisees thought
that Christ would 1atter them and COM
p!iment them, and how they must have
writhed under the red hot words as he said:
Ye FOOLS We whited sepulchres. We blind
guides, which strain out gnat and swallow
camel.
There are in our day great n any gnats
strained out and a great many camels
swallowed, and it is the object OF this SER
mon to sketch a few persons who are ex.
tensively engaged in that business.
First, remark that all those ministers
of the Gospel are photographed In the
text who are very scrupulous about the
conventonalities of religion, but put no
particular stress upon matters of vast inn
prrtance. Church services ought to be
81 ave and solemn. There is no room for
fr.volity in religious convocatioH. But
there are Illus trations and there are
hyperboles, like that of Christ in the text.
that will irradata with smiles alv in
te'ligent auditory. There are men, like
these bind guides of the text, who advo-
cate only those things in religious service
which draw the corners of the mouth
down, and denounce all those things
which have tendency to draw the corn
ers Of the mouth up; and these mon will
go to installations and to presbvteries
and to conferences and to associations,
their pockets full of fine sleeves to strain
out the gnats, while in their own churches
at home every SUNDAY there are fifty
people sound asleep. They make their
churches great dormitory, and their
Romniferous sermons are cradle, and the
drawled-out hymns a lullaby, while
some wakeful soul in pew with her fan
keeps the flies Off unconscious persons ap.
proximate. Now, say it is worse to sleep
in church than to smile in church, for the
latter implies at least attention, while
tno former implies the Indifference of the
hearers and the stupidity of the speaker.
Ii old age, or from physical infirmity, or
from long watching with the sick, drows-
mess will sometimes overpower one; but
when a minister of the Gospel looks off
pom an audience and finds healthy and
Intelligent people struggling with drowsi.
ness, Il is time for him to give out the
Doxo,ogy or pronounce the benediction.
The great fault of church services to-day
is not too nue.: v'vacity, but too much
somnolence. The one is an irritating gnat
that may be easily strained out; the other
is a great, sprawling and sleepy-eyed
camel of the dry desert. In all our Sab
bath schools, in all our Bible classes, in
nil our pulpits we need to brighten up our
religious message with such Christ-like
vivacity Us we find in the text.
1 take down from my library the biog-
raphies of m nisters and writers of past
ages, inspired and uninspired. who have
done the most to bring souls to Jesus
Christ, and find that, without single
exception, they con secrated their wit and
their humor to Christ. Elijah used it
when he advised the Baalites, as they
could not make their god respond, telling
them to call louder, as their god might he
sound asleep or gone hunting. Job used
it when he said to his sef-conce tied CONF
forters, "Wisdom will die with you"
Christ not only used it in the text, but
when he ironically complimented the
putrefied Pharsees, saying, "The whole
need not physician" and when by one
word he described the cunning of Herod,
saving, $50 We and tell that fox" Mat